Sofia in the news – reports and interviews

5/25/2010 – The World Championship in Sofia is still churning out reports in the international press. But for obvious reasons the winner, who hails from a country with over a billion inhabitants, is getting the lion's share of the attention. "I would like to see the same coverage for Topalov as you have had with Anand," requests one reader. We have scanned the press and bring you links and excerpts.

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Ray Wagner from Overijse, Belgium wrote us: "I enjoyed the match very
much, but I would like to see the same coverage for Topalov as you have had
with Anand. I realize the winner will get more attention anyway. Maybe Topalov
is not ready to talk about it yet so that is fine. But I would very much like
to hear from him on the games and how they went. It came down to the last game
and no one can say that Topalov does not deserve out strongest congratulations
in making this a championship to remember and analyze. A lot of great games
were played." And S. D. Dixit of Delhi, India confirms: "The picture
would be incomplete without Topalov's interview. Let us hear him and his team
mates. I think it would make a great book and perhaps a hit movie if you can
go a little deeper and gather all stories connected with WCC."

During the last weeks we have indeed encountered a very large number of reports
on the winner of the World Championship in Sofia, Bulgaria, but comparatively
little on the Challenger, especially in the English language media. We have
put together a few and bring you excerpts. The first is concerned with the diminished
attention such chess matches are receiving.

Ronan Bennett & Daniel King: World championship matches
were once truly epic in scale. Alekhine and Capablanca (1927) slugged it out
in 34 games over 10 weeks, while Kasparov and Karpov made the first move of
their first extraordinary encounter on 10 September 1984. It ended when Karpov
turned over his king on 9 February the following year, after 48 games. Things
are different today. Rule changes, the emergence of computers – putting
an end to adjournments – and the struggle to find sponsorship have led
to a more compressed format. In Sofia, Anand and Topalov played 12 games over
a little more than two weeks. And while the games were watched by thousands
online, the event was barely mentioned in the non-chess media. Full
article...

Day After Chess Championship, Victor and Vanquished Reflect on the Match

By Dylan Loeb McClain

One day after their title match in Sofia, Bulgaria, ended, Viswanathan Anand,
the once and still champion, and Veselin Topalov were tired, but proud. In separate
telephone interviews Anand and Topalov expressed satisfaction with their own
efforts and said it was the most intense match they had ever played.

“This is my first world championship match that has gone the distance,”
said Anand. Referring to his earlier title matches against Vladimir Kramnik
in 2008, which he won, and Garry Kasparov in 1995, which he lost, he continued,
“With Kramnik it went like a dream, with Kasparov it went the opposite
way.” Topalov said, “Every single game was a really big battle,”
adding that it was, “the most enjoyable event I ever played.”

Surprisingly, he was not upset about his mistakes in Game 12 that cost him
the match. “My idea was to press in that game and not to let him go with
an easy draw,” Topalov said. “I had to take a risk or go for a tie-break.
I really committed suicide, but I don’t feel sorry.” His problem
was that he let too many opportunities slip through his fingers. “I missed
my chances earlier in the match — Games 3, 5 and 10. Vishy used all his
chances and I had more than he did, but I did not use them.”

Vseki den: Vesko's nerves were burnt out

The President of Bulgarian Chess Federation Stefan Sergiev spoke about the
World Championship match between Anand and Topalov in the Military Club in Sofia:

I think Topalov was much closer to victory than Anand and had the initiative
during most of the match. But in the second half he was unable to stand
fast, maybe mentally. Anand did not reveal anything new. He showed that
he is far from his best years, but also that he was very well prepared mentally.
He realized that he could not enter into a direct confrontation with Topalov,
just wait and rely on his opponent to go wrong and then strike.

Bulgaria won a lot by holding the match. First the country was constantly
talked about throughout the world. But more importantly we have proved once
again that we are very good organizers and we can stage a game of chess
at the highest level. Even more important was to refute the ideas which
the Russians are trying to spread, that the illegal methods they used to
win the championship in Elista would be used in Sofia to help Topalov to
win. The whole world saw that everything was perfect organised in Sofia,
both players were placed in a level playing field and given the opportunity
to show their true capabilities. So we are no longer dealing with detective
stories of chips in the brains, etc. which the Russians began to develop
on the day when Topalov became World Champion in San Luis in 2005.

Interview with Silvio Danailov

Q: Mr.Danailov, in a recent interview Viswanathan Anand commented that
besides the known seconds (Nielsen, Kasimdzhanov, Wojtaszek, and Ganguly)
he had additional
helpers for the match in Sofia (Kasparov, Kramnik, and Carlsen ). Did
this surprise you?

A: Well, not very much. I know quite well Kasparov and our WC hero from Elista,
they are both old fashioned. What really surprised me was that despite their
so called super team, we were still much superior in the openings. Only in two
games they showed some decent ideas. This was game 4 with white and game 12
with black when they succeeds to equalize the position quickly. The rest of
the games our team totally dominated in the openings. Anand was suffering with
black in all games (except the last one) and no advantage at all with white
(except game 4). And I can tell you more: I will never exchange Cheparinov for
all of these guys together. Cheparinov is much better and much more creative
than Kasparov, Carlsen, etc.

Topalov lost, this is sport, everything can happen. At least this match was
one of the more exciting, chess wise, in the last 20 years. This was not Bonn,
when after game 6 the match was over. Topalov lost, but he was attacking and
was creative during the whole match. Anand was only defending, nothing more.
Brilliant defence, by the way! But maybe the fans expect different way of play
from the Champion, a more inspiring one...

Q: What about the Blue Gene with 8192 cores that you used?

A: About Blue Gene, what I can say is that everything is question of money.
We invested huge amount of money on preparation, I do not want to mention the
figure because someone can get heart attack. In any case Anand's team could
do the same, some money always brings strong preparation.

Q: Let's speak about the rumors: according to local sources there is
a rumor that Anand received extra 300 000 just to agree to play in Sofia.
Is that true?

A: The rumor is not exactly true. It is true that their team has asked for
this fee, but after negotiations they got only 100 000 eur extra money apart
from the prize fund, all according to regulations. And still some people are
trying to present Anand like a poor victim. I agree, maybe he is the victim,
but not so poor after all....

FIDE regulations

13. Prize Fund

13.1 The prize fund of the match, provided by the organizer, should be
a minimum of 1,000,000 (one million) euros, net of any applicable taxes.
The prize fund will be divided: 60% for the winner and 40% to the loser
if the FWCM ends within the 12 regular games. In case the winner is decided
by tie-break games, the winner shall receive 55% and the loser 45%.

13.2 The organizer shall pay to FIDE an amount of 20% over and above the
total prize fund, net of any applicable taxes.

13.3 If the match is played in the country of one of the players, then
the opponent shall receive 100,000 (one hundred thousand) euros from the
Prize Fund. The balance of the Prize Fund shall then be shared in accordance
to Article 13.1 above.

13.4 Before the start of the WCM, the players shall each receive 200,000
(two hundred thousand) euros in accordance to the terms of the Contract
to be signed with FIDE. This amount shall be deducted from the Prize Fund.
The balance of their share of the Prize Fund shall be remitted to the
players within ten days after the completion of the WCM.

Topalov training with super computer Blue Gene P

Topalov confirmed that he has been using the Blue Gene /P supercomputer, with
8792 processors and working on 1 PFLOPS (petaFLOPS). Blue Gene is a computer
architecture project designed to reach operating speeds in the PFLOPS (petaFLOPS)
range, and currently reaching sustained speeds of nearly 500 TFLOPS (teraFLOPS).
It is at least seven times more energy efficient than any other supercomputer,
accomplished by using many small, low-power chips connected through five specialized
networks. Blue Gene/P can be scaled to an 884,736-processor, 216-rack cluster
to achieve 3-PFLOPS performance. A standard Blue Gene/P configuration will house
4,096 processors per rack.

Blue Gene/P has been installed on September 9, 2008 in Sofia, the capital of
Bulgaria, and is operated by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Sofia
University. Topalov has used exactly this modification of Blue Gene /P during
his match with Viswanathan Anand for the World Chess Championship. For local
media Topalov comments, "During my preparation for the match, with Silvio
Danailov we have decided to look for additional resources for my preparation
against Anand. We decided to use the processing power of Blue Gene /P with 8192
processors."

The only problem for Topalov was that there is no software that runs on such
hardware. For Dnevnik Topalov revealed that he has collected a team of computer
professionals to modify a program to work on the Blue Gene. Topalov will use
the computer for his future preparation for the Candidate matches 2010 / 2011.
Until then it will help young local chess players, who will be playing games
and analysing with the supercomputer. On June 10th Topalov will join them to
help in a series of 10 blitz games against the machine.

When Fritz flops

By Anthony Soltis

The reputation of chess computers rose – and fell – repeatedly
during Vishy Anand's successful defense of his world championship title this
month. Chess-playing programs, like the popular Fritz, proved invaluable in
calculating variations, such as the winning Anand attack in the 12th game. Fans
following that final game in real time online knew the dramatic finish before
it happened.

But in other games fans were mystified when computers saw huge endgame advantages
that didn't pan out. For example, some engines claimed Anand had a huge edge
when he had a king, two rooks and a pawn to fight challenger Veselin Topalov's
king and queen in Game 8. But computers have a problem visualizing perpetual
check, and the game was quickly drawn.

In the previous game, computers kept saying that Topalov had a winning edge
when he had an extra pawn in an endgame with bishops of opposite color. But
in "B's-of-opps" endings, an extra pawn is easily blockaded. Exploiting
the pawn typically requires visualizing a plan – a human strength –
rather than calculation, a computer's strong suit. When Topalov won, thanks
to an Anand blunder, some machines – as well as some GMs – were
caught off guard.

See also

12/30/2017 – The "King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017" in Riyadh from Decemer 26th to 30th. At the half way point of the Blitz Championship, the defending champ Sergey Karjakin leads with 9 / 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a half point back followed by Peter Svidler and a trio of Chinese: Wang, Ding and Yu on 8 / 11. In the Women's Pia Cramling has a full point lead with 9½ / 11. Watch live with Rounds 11 to 22 from 12:00 Noon CET (6:00 AM EST) on Saturday with commentary by E. Miroshnichenko & WGM K. Tsatsalashvili.

See also

12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

The introductory position of the Kasparov Gambit can occur after 1 d4,1 Nf3 and 1 c4, which can appeal to a wide range of players. The usual move order is 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 Nf3 cxd4 4 Nxd4 e5!? 5 Nb5 d5 6 cxd5 Bc5 bringing us to a very sharp position. On this 60 mins, FIDE Senior Trainer Andrew Martin argues the case from the Black side, showing both classic Kasparov masterpieces and games from the present day and suggests that White's defensive task is not easy. This is a practical gambit which will help players at all levels to win more games. It is ideal for must-win situations with Black. It is a gambit that White cannot decline,as if he does, Black gets a good position instantly. White must take up the cudgels and fight!